Framing - Comm 403

One aspect of communication is framing. Framing is a form of communication understood by a particular view separate from other views. For example, as the article exemplifies, particular words, concepts, and ideas are known only from particular political platforms. In a way, it can be looked at as a genre.

A better example would be the horror movie genre. Because of framing, certain aspects of the movie are expected. But, they are only understood from audiences of horror movies. Suppose you were watching a comedy. In this comedy, the main character is seen in a dark room with very little movement. The character slowly walks to the closet. While this is happening, no music is being played and the scene of the comedy is very quiet. The character then arrives at the closet door and opens it slowly. Suddenly, the music begins loudly with very low and sharp sounding brass instruments with overlaying string instruments as this sudden volume change scares the audience. Does this sound like a comedy? No, and the audience of the comedy will most likely become confused and dissatisfied with the movie. It’s all about the framing. The audience of the “comedy” were expecting laughs and fun. However, the movie delivered scare tactics and long, drawn out scenes with very quiet build-ups. This breaks what is expected and confuses the audience by using a different language and genre they don’t understand or was not prepared for.

Semiotics of of Wedding - Comm 403

In my last blog I discussed the implications of semiotics of particularly advertisements. However, semiotics does not always have to be applied to texts such as pictures, movies, or advertisements. Events, places, and ideas can also have hidden connotations that can be revealed using semiotics. In my case, I would like to reveal the semiotics of weddings, a very important rite of passage in most people’s lives.

A wedding has many underlying meanings. However, we’ll start with the denotation of weddings. However, I will not denotate an entire wedding, but particular events and ideas that have particular underlying meanings.

A wedding is an event that the bride and groom most likely plan and organize. A bride is expected to wear a rather large white wedding dress while the groom is expected to wear a suit. In the middle of the ceremony, the bride and groom usually partake in the “Unity Sand” (sometimes it is the “Unity Candle” which is an older version of the Unity Sand. At this event, the bride and groom go to a table that holds three items: One rather large empty glass and two smaller glasses with different colored sands in each glass. The bride and groom grab their own color and pour their sand into the larger glass together.

Now, with theses few events and ideas in mind, we can start to connotate these few particular events in a wedding.

First of all, the wedding as a whole can easily to connotated. A wedding is only understood under social standards. We as a society created it. It is only important because we make it important. (like money) Religion in particular makes weddings important. Therefore, a wedding is not just viewed as an event that lasts an entire day, but a rite of passage that marks the beginning of a journey for the couple getting married.

Next, the attire that the couple is expected to wear at the wedding. There is not much to be said about the groom’s attire, but the bride’s attire is very important. Everyone tends to pay more attention to the brides dress than anything else in the wedding. (Watch the show Four Weddings. They have a whole rating category for just the dress alone rather than many characteristics of a contestants wedding) Moreover, the dress is white to show purity. The bride is expected, according to most religions, to be pure prior to her wedding. This white represents the purity that brides are supposed to have prior to marrying.

Lastly, the connotation of the Unity Sand. The two mixing sands that are poured into the large empty glass are mixed together forever; for, you cannot ever separate those two colors once mixed into the large glass. This represents the couple transitioning into one person under god, rather than two separate people represented by the individual colors.

Denotation, Connotation, and the Myth/ideology of POM’s “Cheating Death” Advertisement: COMM 403

Pictured above is POM’s advertisement for their antioxidant beverage. It can be analyzed using levels of 1.)Denotation 2.) Connotation 3.)Myth/ideology
Denotation: A lone full bottle of POM’s juice is shown in the left third of the image. Wrapped around the bottle is a twine rope which is tied into a noose. At the end of the noose is a frayed and torn rope which ends not too far from noose’s knot. On the left third of the image, text reads “Cheat Death.” and “The anti-oxidant power of pomegranate juice.” Each text is very plain and simply to read with clean text. Also, each statement has a period at the end of it. The overall image has a very harsh lighting with highlights on the text but lack of highlights on the actual bottle of juice.
Connotation: POM’s ad simply claims that if you do not drink POM juice, then you have a better chance of dying. The noose is broken to symbolize POM’s power to “Cheat Death” by using its antioxidants. The darkness of the lighting further pushes the scare tactics that POM is portraying by using dark and scary lighting.
Myth/ideology: The biggest myth or ideology is arguably the noose. On a denotative level, the rope on the bottle is just seen as a rope tied in several wraps and loops in a particular way that makes the loop at the end of the rope tighten when given pressure. If we stayed on this level, we may not understand the message of “Cheating Death” . However, because of the ideology that a “noose” has in society, we understand POM’s message. The noose is known throughout world history as a tool for death. It can/has been used to execute and even used for suicide. However, it is also known to lose its effectiveness if the rope is cut or broken. (as exemplified in many western movies) Therefore, we understand POM’s message of a broken noose on the bottle because of society’s implications.

Semiotics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnxpdUdD0Ro&feature=related

The link above is a foreign ad above AIDS awareness. By using Semiotics, we can further analyze what it means.

Under denotation, it shows a man and a woman having sex. And later the man turns into and appears to be Hitler.

Under connotation, many messages are sent. One is that you are similar to Hitler if you have sex with someone if you have AIDS or if you irresponsibly have sex. This is because of the common fact/history of Hitler.